IMYB 2023 has successfully ended!

The 12th International Meeting of Young Beekeepers – IMYB, organized between July 3rd and July 7th 2023 by the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association and the Municipality of Ivančna Gorica, ended with the final ceremony in the sports hall of Stična Primary School.
The event was opened with a speech by the vice-president of Apimondia, dr. Peter Kozmus, who first greeted the young beekeepers and expressed the hope that they had spent a pleasant and successful week, full of new experiences and knowledge in the field of beekeeping. He emphasized the importance of teamwork and integration, the guiding principle of Apimondia, which organizes various events around the world to connect the different fields of the beekeeping industry. He thanked the mentors for their efforts in educating new generations of young beekeepers. Kozmus expressed special thanks to the president of the International Center of Young Beekeepers (ICYB), Mr. Jiří Piza, for transferring knowledge to young beekeepers.

All the participants were given diplomas and medals for participating in the event. Young beekeepers competed in various categories, namely national team mixed, individual competition and best national temasteam. In the latter category, third place was taken by Austria, second by Slovakia and first by the Czech Republic. The Slovenian team reached sixteenth place. In the individual category, the third place was not awarded, as the Australian Reuben Wherret and Slovakian Štefánia Farkašová shared the second place, and Jakob Zöchbauer from Austria took the podium.

Participating teams also brought about sixty types of honey to the evaluation, among which phacelia honey from Scotland took first place, second place went to the Czech Republic for mixed flower honey, and third place to Romania for acacia honey. The award for best country presentation went to France.

In the closing speeches, Jiři Piza, president of the International Center of Young Beekeepers (ICYB), Boštjan Noč, president of the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Associationa, and Dušan Strnad, Mayor of Ivančna Gorica Municipality, thanked each other for the good cooperation and successful organization of the event, highlighting special thanks to the competition coordinator Mrs. Dragica Šteh, Abbot Maksimilijan File, who opened wide the doors of the Stična Abbey for the accommodation of the participating teams, Marjan Potokar, principal of Stična Primary School, where the competition part was held, and Vladimir Fajdiga, leader of the competition committee.

The event concluded with the signing of a special document, an initiative addressed to Apimondi for the establishment of a youth commission, which was signed also by Boštjan Noč, Dušan Strnad and Jiři Piza.

At the end of the final ceremony the guests and young beekeepers were greeted by the music of Sašo Avsenik’s ensemble. Outside, in the amphitheatre of Josip Jurčič Secondary School, local tourist and beekeeping societies together with local entrepreneurs organized an evening market with local produce.